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A comparative study of administrative corruption in ancient and modern China

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ADMINISTRATIVE CORRUPTION
IN ANCIENT AND MODERN CHINA
by
Jia Ming Miao
_________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(POLICY, PLANNING, and DEVELOPMENT)
December 2010
Copyright 2010 Jia Ming Miao

The aim of this dissertation is to examine systemic corruption in relation to ancient and contemporary Chinese regimes in which corruption has been prevalent. The focus is on an examination of how corruption arises in regimes, how corruption has become systemic and entrenched in the Chinese society, and to what extent corruption helps and hurts the regime.; Most of the existing research either turns study of corruption in China into a blanket criticism of the regime, or tends to focus on officials' behaviors rather than the regime and the system, or to blame corruption on the Chinese culture without a careful analysis of to what extent culture conditions corruption and why the Chinese culture is what it is.; The author notices that corruption in contemporary China resembles, and to some extent revives and/or continues corrupt practices in China's imperial era, and that corruptions in both pre-modern and contemporary eras are systemic rather than individualized problems.; This study examines corruption in pre-modern and contemporary China through the goals of the regimes, the officialdoms, the corrupt practices, the ideological, institutional, and power structure of the regimes, and corruption's impact upon the goals of the regimes, especially their survival, stability, and security. Corruption in China should be studied as a systemic problem with reference to the regime's goals, basic power structure, and functioning. The author concludes that in a highly authoritarian society like China, corruption is closely related to the ideology and institutions chosen by the regimes to ensure the regimes' survival, security, and stability. Furthermore, while regimes struggle to keep corruption under control, nevertheless, corruption is often tolerated or utilized by the regimes to serve their purposes. Corruption is indeed a vice and has many negative impacts upon a given society, such as wasting public resources, corrupting public morality, sabotaging government procedures and policies, distorting justice, perpetuating inequality, fueling public discontent, undermining the legitimacy of a regime, and so on. There is no justification for corruption from a moral stand point. However, despite its inherent evilness, corruption, if observed from a functional perspective, has played a functional role in both the traditional and contemporary China with respect to the regimes' survival, security, and stability. It is in the process of understanding corruption's functional relation with the regime that we can better understand how corruption itself becomes systemic.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ADMINISTRATIVE CORRUPTION
IN ANCIENT AND MODERN CHINA
by
Jia Ming Miao
_________________________________________________________________
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(POLICY, PLANNING, and DEVELOPMENT)
December 2010
Copyright 2010 Jia Ming Miao